Rule one: the drive side
China builds left-hand-drive cars for its own market. That makes them directly registrable in the roughly two-thirds of the world that drives on the right, and unregistrable in the rest.
This is not a paperwork problem or a tariff problem. A car whose steering wheel is on the wrong side for the road fails the vehicle standard that every importing country enforces, so no amount of certification fixes it. It is also why our market list looks nothing like a list of the world’s biggest car markets.
Rule two: the age limit
Age is the second gate, and it works in two different ways. Some markets set a hard prohibition, where a car over the line does not clear at any price. Others set a sliding penalty that makes an older car progressively more expensive to land.
The markets that matter most here: Nigeria caps used cars at twelve years, Ghana moves to fifteen years for shipments from 1 October 2026 and charges an overage penalty above ten, Saudi Arabia allows five years excluding the year of import, Peru works to about five in practice, Bolivia allows six for light vehicles, and Paraguay allows ten.
Where the answer is no
Some markets are left-hand drive and still closed, for reasons that have nothing to do with the car. These are worth knowing before anyone spends time on a quote.
- Chile bans used-car imports outright under Ley 18.483, with narrow exceptions. Iquique’s free zone can be used to re-export onward, but a car cannot be registered in Chile.
- Brazil does not admit used vehicles in practice; the tax stack makes the exercise pointless.
- Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia restrict used imports to narrow exceptions, so they are new-vehicle markets.
- Ethiopia has banned petrol and diesel imports, leaving battery-electric models as the only admissible product.
- Argentina admits only the categories opened by Resolution 293/2025: 4x4 vehicles and specified industrial machinery.
Brands, parts and resale
The brands we ship are the ones that have proven they can be serviced where they land: Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Ford, Chevrolet, Isuzu, Suzuki and Mercedes-Benz, which all build or have built in China, and the Chinese marques that are now common across West Africa, the Gulf and Latin America — BYD, Geely, Chery, Haval and GWM, Changan, MG, Jetour, DFSK, Wuling, Hongqi, Li Auto, XPeng and Zeekr.
Parts availability is the honest dividing line. The established Japanese and Korean names are the safest for a workshop that has never seen the model. The newer Chinese brands are strongest where a dealer network already exists — BYD and Geely in Angola, the UAE and Jordan, for instance — and parts are improving fast, but a buyer in a market with no marque presence should plan for slower service.
Resale behaves the same way. In markets where a Chinese brand already sells new, a used unit keeps value; where the brand is unknown, the buyer is effectively the first one, and the price reflects that.
What to confirm before you commit
Four questions, answered before money moves, separate a workable import from an expensive lesson.
- Does the destination drive on the right?
- Is the model year inside the age limit, counting from the model year rather than the registration date?
- Which conformity certificate does the destination require, and how long does it currently take to issue?
- Is there a workshop or parts channel for this model in the destination city?
Questions this guide answers
- Are Chinese cars allowed in Africa?
- In right-hand-traffic Africa, yes — that is Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon, DR Congo, Angola, Madagascar and most of the continent’s west and centre. In left-hand-traffic countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique, a Chinese left-hand-drive car cannot be registered, so those markets are served by Japanese and other right-hand-drive stock.
- Are Chinese cars allowed in the Gulf?
- Yes, and Saudi Arabia’s regulations explicitly require left-hand drive, so a Chinese car is compliant by construction. Duty is 5% of CIF across the GCC, with VAT varying from none in Qatar and Kuwait to 15% in Saudi Arabia. The binding constraint is age, not origin.
- Can I import a Chinese car into South America?
- Into Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay under their own conditions, yes; Peru and Bolivia both work to about five and six years respectively, and Paraguay allows ten. Chile, Brazil and Colombia are closed or quota-bound for used vehicles.
- Why can’t a Chinese car go to Kenya or South Africa?
- Because both drive on the left and require right-hand-drive vehicles. It is the same rule that stops a British or Japanese car being registered in Nigeria.